1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to article handling apparatus, and more particularly concerns an apparatus for handling elongate articles, such as potatoes, including a combination of a roller conveyor and means for laterally transferring articles carried on the roller conveyor.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As is well known, potatoes grow in widely varying sizes. Inasmuch as different users, such as bakeries, restaurants and households, require potatoes of different sizes or weights, potato packing houses employ special article handling equipment for sorting potatoes according to size and weight. Generally, the equipment includes a rough sizing apparatus for removing very small and very large potatoes and a weight-sizing apparatus which receives the remaining potatoes from the rough sizing apparatus and sorts them into groups according to predetermined weight ranges.
A known conventional weight-sizing apparatus includes four transversely spaced, endless series of interconnected weighing cups. The cups are elongated to receive potatoes with the long axes of the potatoes extending in a direction transverse to the direction of travel of the cups. Each of the cups pivot downwardly to release the potato therein at one of several weighing stations dependent upon the weight of such potato.
Potatoes may vary in size to the extent that the largest potato of a particular group may be twice as long as the smallest potato of the group. To assure that potatoes of such great size range are fed only one at a time to a weighing cup and with the potato being parallel to a weighing cup, an article handling apparatus known in packing house parlance as a turn-and-time table is used. This apparatus includes four conveying lanes aligned with the series of cups of the weight sizer, with each lane including a belt conveyor and a segmented conveyor thereabove comprised of a plurality of transversely oriented, uniformly spaced parallel bars disposed above the belt conveyor. The belts and the overlying segmented conveyor are driven at different speeds such that the bars of the segmented conveyor cause the potatoes to align themselves transversely to their paths of travel. One operator for each conveying lane is employed to check the alignment of the potatoes and, most importantly, to remove all but one potato in the lane between the adjacent bars of the segmented conveyor. Assuming the operator effectively removes potatoes as necessary and realigns improperly aligned potatoes, potatoes will be discharged from the turn-and-time table one at a time to the weight cups.
As is also well known, labor costs have been increasing rapidly in recent years. It will therefore be recognized that a fully automatic apparatus for receiving a continuous stream of potatoes and arranging the potatoes into one or more generally uniformly spaced and oriented files would be desirable.